The new container service will be for chemicals, minerals, and raw materials.
What’s it about? The Puducherry port will serve as a bi-weekly container feeder service with Chennai. This will replace trucks from having to ply on the busy Grand Southern Trunk Road. It would also be cheaper compared to road travel. More than 4,000 containers are transported from Puducherry to Chennai.
- The port can store more than 2,000 TEUs (twenty-foot equivalent units) and is ready with the necessary customs clearances for operations. The port handling charges have been purposefully kept lower than Cuddalore port.
- The cost of transporting a 20 feet container is ₹35,000 by road and is less than ₹20,000 by ship. The trip from Puducherry to Chennai will take 12 hours.
Who said what? Jude Vallabhdas of Global Logistics Solutions India Private Limited said he urged the Chennai port chairman to allow carrying lines to nominate Puducherry port as a container yard so that it can store empty containers.